Woman attacked by man with knife at Newark Airport terminal

A man was arrested after attacking a woman at Newark Airport on Sunday, police said.

Port Authority police witnessed a man attack a woman with a knife on the right side of her face at the Terminal A departures level of Newark Liberty International Airport.

Xiong Jin, 54, was charged with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.

The woman, 36-year-old Melissa Mauldin from North Carolina, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

She exclusively spoke with Eyewitness News about the random knife attack.

Mauldin said one second she was inside the terminal watching a little boy play, and the next second she felt a tremendous blow to her face.

When she turned around she saw a man standing in front of her with a bloody knife.

"I felt the force from his fist, and the blade was so short," Mauldin said.

Although the blade was short, it did serious damage to Mauldin's face. She needed 14 stitches to close the gaping cut. Her cheekbone and nose were also fractured.

"I've never not felt secure. And I was telling my finance Max last night, I feel like all that security is stripped from me and I didn't even do anything to deserve it," Mauldin said exclusively to Eyewitness News.

Mauldin lives just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and was in the area for a friend's wedding in Hoboken.

As the ladies were heading home Sunday evening, police said that's when Jin stabbed Mauldin in the face.

Mauldin said she was standing just inside Terminal A at Newark Airport when the suspect blindsided her, coming up behind her, reaching around, and knifed her.

"He had the knife still raised in the air," Maudlin said.

Port Authority immediately arrested Jin as strangers rushed to help Mauldin.

"He wasn't there for a flight, he had no bags, he had nothing. He was just there with the intent to hurt somebody," Mauldin said.

Police said Jin has been in and out of prison since 2009 for assault.

"Why are you that evil? He stabbed multiple people before," Mauldin said.

Police said Jin just got out of jail two days before the incident.

Mauldin hopes Jin remains behind bars and gets help so what happened to her doesn't happen to anyone else.

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